Our Trainings

Our Trainings

Riverside Trauma Center provides training sessions for mental health professionals and paraprofessionals, schools, organizations, workplaces, first responders, and others. Continuing education hours are available for Psychologists, Social Workers, LMHCs, LMFTs, and Nurses for many Riverside Trauma Center sponsored trainings. We can design a customized training to provide the information that is most applicable to your organization. Call us at 781-433-0672, ext. 5738 for more information and to schedule a training for your organization. Current trainings that are open for registration are on the Register for a Training page.

Suicide Assessment and Intervention

Suicide Assessment and Intervention Training for Mental Health ProfessionalsDescription: This full-day training is designed to increase knowledge and improve the skills and confidence of clinicians and others who find themselves identifying high-risk youth and adults, and planning for their care. Participants will learn the scope of the problem, review current information on suicide risk factors, and examine personal reactions to dealing with suicidal behaviors. Best practices in risk assessment will be presented and attendees will learn techniques for eliciting suicidal ideation. Issues relative to liability management and planning for intervention will be presented. The training, which was approved in 2015 by the SPRC Best Practices Registry for Suicide Prevention, is based on current best practices and reflects the training objectives in the 2012 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. Research on the effectiveness of this training demonstrates significant gains in knowledge and confidence. Six (6) hours of continuing education will be provided for Psychologists, Social Workers, LMHCs, LMFTs, and Nurses. Learn more about the training here.Audience: Mental health professionals

Suicide Prevention: A Gatekeeper Training for School PersonnelDescription: This 2-hour training is designed to increase knowledge about suicide and crisis issues in youth, including warning signs and risk and protective factors; improve the skills and confidence of teachers and other school staff to ask youth directly about suicide; understand effective school protocols for managing youth at risk; familiarize school personnel with ways to reduce stigma and improve school climate; and teach them how to find “best practices” resources for suicide prevention. The training, which was approved in 2015 by the SPRC Best Practices Registry for Suicide Prevention, is based on current best practices and reflects the training objectives in the 2012 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. This training is designed to meet the criteria of the recently passed Massachusetts Law Chapter 284, a bill to Reduce Gun Violence, which recommends that all licensed school personnel receive a minimum of 2 hours training on suicide prevention every 3 years. Learn more about the training here.Audience: All elementary and secondary school personnel

Assessing and Managing Suicide Risk (AMSR): Core Competencies for Mental Health ProfessionalsDescription: A full-day workshop that is about assessing suicide risk, planning treatment, and managing the ongoing care of the at-risk client. This is a “best practices” training developed by the American Association of Suicidology and the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. Two Riverside Trauma Center staff are approved AMSR trainers.Audience: Mental health professionals

Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR)Description: This evidence-based training takes 1-1.5 hours, and is for gatekeepers to learn how to help someone who might be considering suicide. Gatekeepers are people who, during the regular course of their lives, have contact with a certain population who might be at risk for suicide. QPR teaches how to recognize the warning signs, clues, and suicidal communications of people in trouble so they can act vigorously to prevent a possible tragedy. It is modeled after CPR: spend an hour and learn how to save a life.Audience: All members of a community can benefit from this training, including neighbors, colleagues, family members, and others. The workshop can be tailored for specific groups like coaches, clergy, teachers, etc. A version of this training has been modified for public safety members including police, fire, EMS and Corrections. This 3-hour course is free to public safety and has an OEMS approval. It can be tailored to include information for family members of public safety as well. For more information about the training for public safety: Suicide Prevention Training for Public Safety Personnel

Recognizing Depression and Suicide RiskDescription: This 1-2 hour training discusses the signs and symptoms of depression and suicide. The risk factors for suicide and the protective factors for suicide prevention will be highlighted. This workshop gives the attendees the tools to identify people with serious depression and/or suicide risk, and provides them with the skills and knowledge to support and refer the depressed and/or suicidal person to the appropriate mental health services.Audience: Schools, community agencies, workplaces, and many other organizations

Gatekeeper Trainings on Recognizing Warning Signs of Depression and Suicide in EldersDescription: This 2-hour training discusses the unique risk factors for suicide in elders and the methods for screening an elder for suicidal ideation and risk. The training is for gatekeepers who, during the regular course of their lives, have contact with elders. This workshop will also explore strategies for immediate and longer-term treatment options for people identified with depression and/or a high suicide risk. Referral options will also be shared along with how to decide which kinds of referrals to make.Audience: Community agencies, healthcare providers, and others working with elder populations

Postvention: Responding to Schools and Communities Following Adolescent SuicideDescription: This is a 2-hour training. The term “postvention” refers to planned interventions with those affected by a suicide death that aim to address the needs of the bereaved, reduce the risk of contagion, and promote healthy adaptation of individuals and the community. The goal of this presentation is to provide guidelines for effective postvention as they relate to schools, workplaces, organizations, and communities. The presenters will draw from their broad experience in postvention, and will present informational highlights, which include data and comments generated by students at schools throughout Massachusetts where postventions have been implemented. This training is based on Riverside Trauma Center’s Postvention Protocols, which are listed in Section III of the SPRC Best Practices Registry for Suicide Prevention.Audience: School administrators, community leaders, workplaces, organizations, and human resources staff

Other Trainings

Psychological First Aid/Post Traumatic Stress Management Workshop (PFA/PTSM)Description: The goal of this comprehensive 2-day training is to prepare participants to deliver basic behavioral health disaster response skills following large-scale disasters or critical incidents, such as homicides, suicides, accidental deaths, and similarly distressing events. Participants will be presented with the evolution of efforts to assist survivors following trauma, and provided with an overview of the human stress response and how it affects the choice of interventions used with distressed individuals. The 9-phase Post Traumatic Stress Management continuum and the 8 core functions of Psychological First Aid (PFA) will be discussed.Audience: Schools, community agencies, workplaces, and many other organizations

Understanding Trauma and Trauma-Informed CareDescription: This 2-3 hour training provides information about the prevalence and impact of traumatic events and explains why a focus on trauma is important. The training defines what it means to be trauma informed, how this differs from and overlaps with trauma treatment, as well as what providers can do to ensure their practices/policies are more trauma informed.Audience: Schools, community agencies, workplaces, and many other organizations

Understanding Trauma and Trauma-Sensitive SchoolsDescription: This training is designed to help people working within school systems to understand the prevalence and impact of traumatic events, and looks at why a focus on trauma is important. It discusses the idea of trauma-informed care and what it means to be a trauma-sensitive or safe and supportive school, how this differs from and overlaps with trauma treatment, as well as what school personnel can do to ensure their practices/policies are more trauma-informed. The concepts of safety, predictability, and control are explored, and strategies to help establish them in school settings are highlighted. Particular attention is paid to self- and co-regulation, affect management, and self-care skills both for students and school personnel. This training can be tailored to be anywhere from a comprehensive and interactive full-day to just a basic overview in 1 hour or 90 minutes. It can target all school personnel or be geared more towards school counselors. Ongoing consultation and support on becoming a trauma-sensitive school is also available.Audience: Mental health professionals, guidance counselors, school administrators, and school personnel

Responding to Grief and Sudden Loss in Schools and Communities
Description: This 2-hour training provides schools and communities with the tools for managing sudden or traumatic loss. Administrators and school behavioral staff will learn to facilitate healthy grieving, with the goal of helping the community integrate the loss. The training includes an overview of different models of grief, including a discussion of variations in individual, developmental, family, gender, and cultural styles of grieving. Research on what is often helpful for bereaved individuals is presented. There is an emphasis on the complexities of dealing with suicide or other traumatic loss. In the case of a suicide death, a discussion of the broader topic of suicide postvention and its role in facilitating grieving, as well as preventing future suicide deaths is included.Audience: Schools, community agencies, workplaces, and many other organizations

Talking to Your Child about the Current Climate and Islamophobia Description: These seem to be particularly turbulent times, both internationally with terrorism sweeping across the globe and nationally with a highly-charged political atmosphere. Muslim communities and families are finding themselves at this crossroad, with children being exposed to increasing threats, fears, bullying, and harassment. This 1½ hour workshop provides parents and guardians with the tools they need to have a productive, honest conversation with their children, in age-appropriate ways, about both the current climate and the rise of Islamophobia.Audience: Parents and guardians of children in preschool through high school

Fostering ResilienceDescription: While we know that traumatic stress can severely impact people’s lives, we also know that the most common outcome after any potentially traumatic event is that people maintain fairly steady levels of functioning and, in some cases, experience post-traumatic growth. Resilience is the norm and the characteristics and skills that allow people to be resilient can be developed, bolstered, and applied before, during, and after highly stressful events. This 2-3 hour training provides the groundwork for understanding what can go wrong with traumatic stress, but also what can be done to help things go right. The training provides a framework for understanding the concept of resilience. Several models of resilience are presented. Activities and a discussion guide encourage participants to think about ways they can foster their own resilience and that of people with whom they work.Audience: Schools, community agencies, workplaces, and many other organizations

Youth Mental Health First AidDescription: This 8-hour training is primarily designed for adults who regularly interact with young people. It teaches adults how to help an adolescent (age 12-18) who is experiencing a mental health or addictions challenge or is in crisis. The course introduces common mental health challenges for youth, reviews typical adolescent development, and teaches a 5-step action plan for how to help young people in both crisis and non-crisis situations. Topics covered include anxiety, depression, substance use, disorders in which psychosis may occur, disruptive behavior disorders (including AD/HD), and eating disorders.Audience: All members of a community can benefit from this training, including parents, family members, caregivers, neighbors, school personnel, peers, mental health professionals, and others. The workshop can be tailored for specific groups like coaches, first responders, clergy, teachers, etc.

Riverside Trauma Center is a service of Riverside Community Care, a non-profit organization. Services are funded through the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, donations, and grants. There are cases when a fee applies for a service we provide. Please talk to a Riverside Trauma Center staff member about your specific service request to see if there is an associated fee. All contributions are welcome and appreciated.